Seasonal

Day before yesterday brought us what's probably the last flower stalk from the oxblood lilies. Spider lilies (lycoris radiata) continue to bloom in unlikely places, giving us the best show in years. Already the first leaves are appearing in places where the spider lilies did not flower this year. The torenia and nasturtium in pots are blooming for the first time this fall. We've even seen five blossoms on the passion vine. Both kinds of hyacinth bean (the ones with dull green seedpods and the ones with shiny crimson pods) are coming into their own, to the point where the grounds smell of the flowers in quite an overpowering and nearly unpleasant way. Pink oxalis and purple heart are giving us flowers again after the heat. Turk's cap and lantana are still covered with flowers. At least a dozen kinds of morning glory are flowering very well, although some passer-by found it necessary to pull up the wild sunflowers that had been supporting three different types of morning glory, so that those vines are now dead. Four o'clocks are blooming prolifically, including the lone plant with white blossoms. We're seeing some white-flowering cypress vines, now, along with the red ones. Chile plants are flowering now. So is one tithonia, along with a few milkweeds in pots. The cosmos that have grown to be ten feet tall without flowering now have buds, and one of them has opened, giving us one lone orange-gold flower, although there will be more. Zinnias are flowering, and not just pink ones, for a change. Lovers of salads have nearly consumed the first batches of lettuces sown in pots. Some creature has also developed an appetite for basil leaves. Fennel is greeting the season by shooting forth new feathery leaves.